Shift, Chapter 10

(This chapter is shorter than I was planning because I want to post this before I lose the internet. It's also a bit rusty because it's taking me a while to get back into writing this. Excuses over.)
***

TOP SECRET

Message for His Majesty, King Penry of Silvetera.

We have successfully crossed the border and troops are in position to move on Gaveny. There is some localised resistance, but nothing in significant strength to halt our progress.

Admiral Tern

Kylan, Ruth. The Red Run: secret messages unlocked.

***

The man closed up his shop and started the long walk home. His back was bowed against the world, his mind bent around his many troubles. It was a very still night, in a run-down district of the city. However, even then, he felt that there was something wrong. There was a terrible feeling of absence and something else, some indescribable and overwhelming sense of threat. With a terrible chill, he realised what this must mean. He began to run, his heart hammering in his chest, his mind racing faster than his legs.

With a sickening crack, he fell hard against the ground and rolled onto his back. His breath gasping in his throat, he searched frantically around himself, as the silence gradually grew and swelled. With one final sigh, he fell still, his eyes rolling up in their sockets. A single red tear welled up and fell, streaking a crimson line against his cheek. There was a moments silence and then a figure stepped forwards from the darkness, hovering over the man’s slumped form.

“I thought I might find you here,“ A man’s voice rumbled deeply from a nearby archway. “Your presence is required.”

The figure turned, fixing him with pure-white, disc-like eyes. It took a long-drawn, hissing breath, flexing the individual fingers on each hand.

“It will be worth your while,” he added, a slightly coaxing tone entering his voice. He took a half step back and swept his arm backwards in an inviting gesture.

“Very well,” it replied, the voice soft and feminine, but clear. She stepped away from the slumped form on the floor and slid into the protection of the shadows.

“What did this one do?” Klint asked, seized by a rare moment of curiosity.

“He made some very wealthy enemies,” she replied, the sound of her voice receding rapidly.

Klint half-smiled and allowed a brief growl of what would approximate laughter. He quickly shifted into the darkness and moved away into the still and silent night.

***

TOP SECRET

URGENT

Message for their Majesties, King Lahaldi and Queen Reya.

Greetings, honourable allies and leaders of our neighbouring nation, the highly esteemed Aetyorthiri.

Urgent news compels us to speak briefly. We are under attack by King Penry and Queen Aleyn of Silvetera, lately the acquisitors of the Kingdom of Arrozale. We have been friends and allies for many centuries and we now beg you to assist us in this war.

Send us your reply as soon as you can, we do not know how long we can hold them back by ourselves.

King Tanon and Queen Elerina, Elect of Callania.

***

“Do you hear that?” Srynia panted to her sister, pacing at the long loping stride of the wolf.

“Werserks,” Riarna growled back, her hackles slightly raising.

In unison, the sisters picked up the pace, lengthening out their strides, tracking the sounds ahead of them.

“Look there! Straight ahead!” Srynia barked.

In front of them, a pack of Werserks was circling around a figure lying on the floor. As the sisters closed in on them, the sound of the snarls and howls grew to near-deafening proportions. They were nearly on top of them when the first of the pack noticed, but too late to raise the alarm.

“Get dad, I’ll hold them,” Riarna half-snarled, half-roared as she launched into a pounce, shifting from wolf to lioness as she flew. Srynia branched off from her sister, making the figure on the floor her target.

“Dad! Can you hear me?” She asked, crouching low to his face. His eyes fluttered open, but his breath was low and raspy.

“Can you shift to something I can carry? Dad? Can you understand?” she continued, her voice more urgent.

Willan shook his head very slightly.

“No,” he replied, his voice very faint and whispery. “Too weak. Go, daughter. Go now while you still can.”

With a sudden punch, a Werserk landed on Srynia’s back, snarling and biting at her neck. She shook furiously to dislodge him, managing to make him slide onto the ground, teeth still wrapped around her throat. Struggling and shaking, she snapped and bit at whatever part of him that she could reach. With a sudden sense of release, she felt the Werserk lift from her back. She turned to see her father, still in human form, lifting the wolf, his hands buried in its thick, scruffy neck. Srynia scrambled to her feet, blood running in rivulets from the wounds in her neck.

With a sickening snap, the Werserk twisted and closed its teeth around Willan’s bare throat. The man collapsed backwards, his body crumpling as he fell.

“No!” Srynia howled, launching at the Werserk. He turned, a sneering contempt stretching across his wolf-features. Leaping agilely to the side, he put in a parting snap before bounding off to rejoin the fight, still raging furiously between Riarna and the rest of the pack.

Srynia rushed to her father’s side, shifting to human form, putting her hand over the strange contortion in his neck. She carefully shut his blankly staring eyes, tears falling silently and steadily from her face to his. Wiping her face hastily, she turned away, shifting back to wolf form.

“Riarna!” she called, seeing her sister was still holding off the pack. Twisting and biting, shifting and sliding between them, keeping up that incredible strength of energy she always seemed to possess. Riarna met her sister’s eyes across the distance, making a slight nod of acknowledgement that she could hear.

“He’s dead!” she wailed, turning to glance once again on Willan’s body. Riarna hesitated momentarily, before shifting out of the path of snapping teeth, letting them close on the air with a resounding clack. With a leap and a roll she cleared the group of Werserks, launching into the air and shifting into a hawk. Flying straight up, out of their reach, she kee-eed, calling her sister to join her. Focusing all her strength, Srynia mustered up one of the few bird-from shifts she could do, taking to the air as a sparrow.

“Hold the shift!” Riarna kee-eed to her sister, knowing very well how much difficulty she had with this one.

“Will do!” Srynia sang back, “Better not to talk. Keep the focus.”

“We’ll head north, far out of their range. Then we can change form to something easier. I’ll stay as a hawk, protect you and keep an eye on where we’re going.”

Srynia replied with a single chirrup of acknowledgement.

The two flew high and far away from the Werserks beneath them, still prowling and circling. They set a course straight north, the misty shapes of the distant mountain range before them.